Sustainable Cities

I "googled" sustainable cities and found a Wikipedia article referencing examples of sustainable cities around the world. Surprisingly, there are a handful listed in the United States, yet many of those are planned or in the works.

What is a sustainable city, and what does it entail? Wikipedia deems a sustainable city a city planned with the intention of limiting environmental impact through the lessening of carbon footprint, water and energy usage, and limited use of nonrenewable resources.  A sustainable city should include reliable and efficient public transportation, mixed-use zoning to limit commutes, community gardens, shared living spaces, planned and purposeful growth, green spaces within city limits, and education resources for the community to encourage personal, sustainable changes.  I think the educational portion is often overlooked in developing a community but of upmost importance; without resources for the citizens on how to live sustainably, the purposeful planning can and will be lost.

There are portions of many American cities that could make a close-to-perfect sustainable city. Take DC's metro system (expansive, efficient, cheap, easily understandable) + New York City's mixed-use zoning clumping residential, industrial, and commercial together + community gardens found in a growing number of cities + communal living of California + planned and purposeful growth found only in select cities (not that it's a difficult concept) + green spaces of Macon or Atlanta--maybe I'm stretching that one a bit, but I love our parks. That'd be one great combination.

Some of the poorest planned cities I've seen are located right here in Georgia. Both Macon and Atlanta have layouts that promote driving short distances. It's rare to find someone who walks to their job unless he/she lives on or very near Mercer's campus.  It seems that very few post-collegiate residents are pedestrians instead relying on their vehicles to travel within city limits. This could be due to the set up of the city including safety issues or to our society's relatively recent dependence on motor vehicles. I'm willing to compromise: both are contributors.

Some day I hope to assist in the development of cities, so that we, as world citizens, may protect the earth we have been granted leaving precious resources for future generations.

I'm listening to something beautiful.